Two Bills Drive

Among Bills In The Community This Week: Linebacker London Fletcher will be visiting kindergarten students at the Broadway Village Elementary Community School (PS 57), located at 231 Sears Street in Buffalo. Fletcher will sign autographs and answer questions.

‘The Patriots are desperate for a win over anybody, no matter who the quarterback happens to be, and the Bills are suddenly starting to think “hey, why NOT us?”.’

‘Belichick privately has told friends over the years that while he admired Bledsoe’s toughness he did not consider Bledsoe his ideal quarterback.’

‘We knew Bledsoe was a wonderful quarterback, but we had no idea he was this great.’

‘Winfield has missed two games due to minor arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage in his knee. Williams has been out two weeks with a strained hamstring.’

‘The Patriots absolutely made the right choice to stick with Brady — they won a Super Bowl with him. That team caught a spark with Brady and Belichick wisely rode the hot hand. What was he supposed to do for 2002, cut the Super Bowl MVP and go back to Bledsoe, a player who was stagnating in his system and eating up $5 million in cap space?’

‘No longer is this going to be a ”Win One for the Drewster” kind of game. The Bills are in the playoff hunt and they need to beat division opponents because it seems that their best route to a postseason berth will be to win the AFC East.’

‘The Bills quarterback is too classy a guy to get into it publicly. But privately he could care less for the Pats coach. He believes Belichick lied to him about giving him a chance to regain his starting job last season after the quarterback returned from a life-threatening chest injury.’

‘To think, this love affair with Ralph Wilson and football might never have happened had Ronnie Harmon not dropped that ball in the 1989 playoff game in Cleveland.’

‘So how will Brady handle going to a stadium filled with frenzied fans playing against a team aching to win one for the guy — Bledsoe — who has given the city and its players a football rebirth? The relentless Boston media will be hounding, too. Some were already in Buffalo on Sunday and one paper is sending seven reporters to chronicle Bledsoe Bowl I.’

‘Maybe the Patriots aren’t as good as a Super Bowl trophy says they are, but the Bills aren’t as good as everybody thinks they are, either. This might be a good time to remember that, before the door of that bandwagon smucks somebody in the butt.’

‘It would appear the guy he lumped in along with the running backs, the fullback, and the wide receivers has had more than a little to do with it. It would appear The Quarterback, who calls Belichick The Head Coach, has had an effect on things, an effect the skilled receivers and skilled running back who wore the Bills’ colors a year ago willingly have acknowledged.’

‘”We have to focus on beating the Buffalo Bills. It doesn’t matter who their quarterback is,” Pats receiver Troy Brown said.’

‘It is most likely already over for the Patriots. They’ll probably need to win at least seven and maybe eight of their remaining nine games just to sneak into the playoffs.’

‘This could be a rallying point, but it seems the last thing Belichick would do at this point is invoke Bledsoe as a means of motivating his team. That might not work anyway, given the strong ties many of his players have to their former teammate.’